DESPITE THE OPPOSITION to its planned purchase of Astral Media, Bell Canada remains steadfast that this deal is good for Canada and Quebec – and will foster innovation and competition to the benefit of Canadian media consumers.
In its reply comments submitted to the CRTC last week (the final paper stage before the public hearing in Montreal starting September 10th, Bell takes a hard line especially against those standing utterly opposed to its $3.4 billion purchase of the company which owns such brands as The Movie Network, Super Écran, HBO Canada, Family Channel, Virgin Radio, NRJ Radio, Rouge FM and…
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OTTAWA and VANCOUVER – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and citizen-engagement group OpenMedia.ca are behind a new coalition known as ‘Stop the Takeover’ formed to fight Bell’s proposed acquisition of Astral Media.
The coalition, which also includes groups Canada Without Poverty, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, Canadian Media Guild, Consumers' Association of Canada, Council of Canadians, Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of British Columbia, CWP Advocacy Network, Option Consommateurs, and Union des consommateurs, has kicked off a campaign encouraging Canadians to block the deal by completing a preset form on its website and sending it to…
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TORONTO – Score Media will be a digital/new media company only going forward as the company has decided to sell its television business to Rogers Communications for $167 million. The two companies announced the deal early Saturday morning.
Score Media’s television business is comprised of theScore Television Network, closed captioning service provider Voice2Visual, and theScore Fighting Series (SFS). Score Media’s digital business includes theScore.com and its mobile applications ScoreMobile, ScoreMobileFC and Sportstap. John Levy, founder, chairman and CEO of Score Media will lead the digital media business following the spin-out.
Score Media’s digital properties are well-known and well received by sports…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The Federal Liberal Association in Guelph, ON, has been hit with a $4,900 fine by the CRTC for its use of automatic dialers, also known as robocalls, during the 2011 election.
The Commission said Friday that its decision pertained to robocalls made over a period of approximately one hour on April 30, 2011 that did not comply with the country’s Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules. The violations involved a pre-recorded message sent by the Association that failed to identify on whose behalf the call was made, did not provide necessary call-back information, and failed to display the originating telephone number or…
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OTTAWA – Complaints about telemarketing spiked in July, with the CRTC fielding approximately 17,000 complaints.
According to the Commission’s most recent status report, five new investigations were opened in July, bringing the number of active investigations to 172.
The national do not call list (DNCL) now contains 10,936,524 telephone or fax numbers. Since its launch in 2008, 585,846 complaints have been logged.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Cogeco Diffusion has received CRTC approval to amend the broadcasting licence for radio station CJMF-FM Québec to a specialized format devoted to spoken word programming.
In its decision, the Commission noted that CJMF-FM already broadcasts spoken word programming during peak listening hours, and still intends to broadcast 17 hours of music programming per broadcast week.
“In light of the above, the Commission is of the view that approval of the amendments proposed by CJMF-FM would only have a limited impact on the Québec radio market, and no undue negative financial impact on incumbent radio stations”, the decision…
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QUISPAMSIS – The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) has added its voice to those speaking out against the proposed merger of Bell and Astral.
Describing the matter as “profoundly a consumer issue”, CCSA president Alyson Townsend said that should the deal be approved, Canadian TV viewers will continue to be denied the ability to buy and pay for only the channels they really want. In addition, small cable and telephone TV distributors presently serving rural and remote communities in Canada would most likely be put out of business or gobbled up by Bell.
Citing her organization’s experience as a member of the…
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“ONLY IN CANADA” were the three words I couldn’t get out of my head while reading Corus Entertainment’s application to the CRTC to change the Nature of Service (NOS) for its specialty channel OWN.
Stateside, OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network) has a pretty straightforward history. Daytime talk TV queen Oprah wanted to do something new – start her own cable channel and then step down from her popular TV show. So, she partnered with Discovery Communications and together they rebranded Discovery Health as OWN. The channel has not been the runaway success in the ratings most assumed it would be…
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PERHAPS WE’RE DIGGING too hard but we wonder if, in approving the sale of Leafs TV, Gol TV and NBA TV on Thursday, the CRTC is sending a message to Bell Canada that its stated benefits package for the purchase of Astral Media won’t make it out of next month’s hearing intact.
The Commission took a vigorous look at the valuation the new owners of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (Bell Canada, Rogers Media and existing minority shareholder Lawrence Tanenbaum) put on the regulated broadcast assets of the company which also owns The Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto…
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THESE CRTC HEARINGS INTO big acquisitions have simply become giant public negotiating exercises where a lot of dirty laundry is aired in public by those who feel they’ve been wronged in the past. It becomes payback time, if you will.
The applicant – in this case, Bell Media – puts in an application that is a swing for the fences. It cocks its regulatory bat and takes a mighty swing, looking for that grand slam home run on the first pitch, where all of its proposals are accepted by the Commission – but knowing full well it’s likely to miss…
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